Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, HOMESICK, by PHOEBE CARY


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

HOMESICK, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Comfort me with apples!
Last Line: Comfort me with apples!
Subject(s): Homesickness


COMFORT me with apples!
I am sick unto death, I am sad to despair;
My trouble is more than my strength is to bear;
Back again to the green hills that first met my sight
I come, as a child to its mother, to-night; --
Comfort me with apples!

Comfort me with apples!
Bring the ripe mellow fruit from the early "sweet bough," --
(Is the tree that we used to climb growing there now?)
And "russets," whose cheeks are as freckled and dun
As the cheeks of the children that play in the sun; --
Comfort me with apples!

Comfort me with apples!
Gather those streaked with red, that we named "morning-light."
Our good father set, when his hair had grown white,
The tree, though he said when he planted the root,
"The hands of another shall gather the fruit;" --
Comfort me with apples!

Comfort me with apples!
Go down to the end of the orchard, and bring
The fair "lady-fingers" that grew by the spring;
Pale "bell-flowers," and "pippins," all burnished with gold,
Like the fruit the Hesperides guarded of old; --
Comfort me with apples!

Comfort me with apples!
Get the sweet "junietta," so loved by the bees,
And the "pearmain," that grew on the queen of the trees;
And close by the brook, where they hang ripe and lush,
Go and shake down the best of them all, -- "maiden's-blush;" --
Comfort me with apples!

Comfort me with apples!
For lo! I am sick; I am sad and opprest;
I come back to the place where, a child, I was blest.
Hope is false, love is vain, for the old things I sigh;
And if these cannot comfort me, then I must die!
Comfort me with apples!





Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


Other Poems of Interest...
Home: PoetryExplorer.net